Microsoft admitted last week that it incorrectly updated some Windows 10 users to the latest version of the Windows 10 operating system —version 1709— despite users having specifically paused update operations in their OS settings.

The admission came in a knowledge base article updated last week. Not all users of older Windows versions were forcibly updated, but only those of Windows 10 v1703 (Creators Update).

This is the version where Microsoft added special controls to the Windows Update setting section that allow users to pause OS updates in case they have driver or other hardware issues with the latest OS version.

Some users were accidentally updated to Fall Creators Update

But according to reports, a Microsoft snafu ignored these settings and forcibly updated some users to Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update).

“This happened to me last night,” said a user sharing his experience on the AskWoody tech support website. “About 30 minutes later, a box pops on my screen and informs me that there are security updates available and that it needs to update to latest version of Windows 10 to be able to install them and then starts the update.

“I have Dell XPS8900 with version 1703 and when the update finished, I had version 1709, but no sound, no color ( everything black and white ), reinstall software notifications and errors saying certain shortcut keys are not available,” the user added.

“I had pause[d updates] on for 35 days enabled and 365 days set on feature updates. After restoring an image and disabling WU service, the forced update began to update all over again !!!”

KB4023814 caused all problems

Microsoft admitted its blunder. The OS maker says it shipped last week a Windows feature update —KB4023814— that would show an update notification for users of older Windows versions.

The update was meant primarily for Windows 10 v1507 and v1511, two Windows 10 versions released in 2015 that are now officially end-of-life.

Microsoft was just trying to notify users that they should update to the latest Windows 10 version to receive security updates.

The update was also displayed for Windows 10 v1607 and v1703, even if those OS versions are still supported, but as an optional update alert.

But it appears that KB4023814 misfired for v1703 users with custom update settings and forcibly installed the latest version, v1709.

Users can downgrade back to v1703

“Microsoft is aware that this notification was incorrectly delivered to some Windows 10 Version 1703 devices that had a user-defined feature update deferral period configured. Microsoft mitigated this issue on March 8, 2018,” the company said.

Users who mistakenly received this update can downgrade if they want to. Microsoft explains how:

Users who were affected by this issue and who upgraded to Windows 10 Version 1709 can revert to an earlier version within 10 days of the upgrade. To do this, openSettings > Update & Security > Recovery, and then select Get started under Go back to the previous version of windows 10.

This incident marks the third time in the past year when Microsoft has mistakenly updated v1703 users to v1709. It happened before in November 2017 and January 2018 when Patch Tuesday security updates accidentally upgraded some users.